Thanks for the compliments everyone. I actually gave the hat to the recipient this evening, and he LOVED it - actually wore it all night while we were out and showed it off to everyone.

I just want to say that the top link here is from the founder of my knitting guild!! She is AWESOME and is my knitting mentor---without her class I would have never learned how to knit!!! YEA DAWN!! You can get to our guild website through that link too!!